How to Create a Rad Culture in Your Organization
You, as the company leader, are the Visionary. It is up to you to attract and surround yourself with creative talent and how-to experts who can transform your Big Picture Vision into reality. That includes your taking the lead to build a culture that aligns your team with your Vision and feeds off your passion and energy.
Congratulations—you are now at the “Alliance of the Team” step of your SCALEit Method™ journey.
THE VIBE OF YOUR TRIBE
If you are in contact with a millennial anywhere in your life or community, chances are you’ve heard the word “rad” and understand the reference. If not, no worries. You only need to know that “rad” essentially means “radically awesome.”
Who doesn’t want to have a rad company culture?
When you are scaling your business, it is essential that you treat your team as number one at all times. If you believe in them, take care of them, and show your appreciation every day, they will perform beyond your wildest dreams. If they feel like they are well treated and respected and enjoy being part of a cool company culture, they will take even better care of our customers and your profits will soar.
I call this the vibe of your tribe. It will drive the happiness of your team, your clients, and even you. People want to work for and with companies that have a fun and unified vibe.
LET THE MEETINGS BEGIN!
One way to strengthen the alliance with your team is by converting your meetings from “talking head” meetings (with you doing most of the talking) and “project” meetings to brainstorming sessions about one thing: your clients. By helping solve clients’ problems, your team will create happy customers for life—and possibly even develop new revenue opportunities.
In addition, you want to schedule monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings to review progress toward achieving goals and your Big Picture Vision. These meetings are a good opportunity to do a temperature take of employees while also sharing in everyone’s successes.
ON THE FLY WITH VIRTUAL TEAMS
In today’s high-tech business climate, many companies have found ways to create collaborative team alliances with offsite employees. Video conferencing, phone conferencing, texting, IM systems, VPNs, shared servers and, of course, regular emails have become the norm to help employees communicate with each other and share, transmit, and review each other’s work.
Managing virtual employees entails a few additional challenges because those individuals can get left out of hallway conversations and decisions made on the fly in the office when they can’t be reached. These employees can’t be held accountable for things they haven’t been told. Your offsite team needs to feel elevated, too, so it’s extra important that you (or a designated employee) keep them in the communication loop as things happen. Offsite employees may not be visible all the time, but remember that they are a crucial part of your company’s success.
One of my clients created a daily practice that is aptly named “Tuck-Ins.” This is where all employees get a check-in call at the end of the day. Typically, there is no agenda; it’s just a check-in to see how their days went and to say “have a good night.” It also gives the offsite employees a chance to raise critical issues and questions that otherwise might not have been aired.
If you have offsite employees, try to implement end-of-day “Tuck-Ins” with them. You’ll find that you can go to bed without worrying that anyone on your team has “bed bugs”!
Stay tuned for my next blog installment, in which you will learn another important component of how to build team alliance: cocreation.
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